West Perry soccer stops Susquenita, extends school record

Dave MorrisonDespite tight marking by Susquenita's Madeline Smith (9), West Perry striker Tiffany Bowersox got loose for two goals in the Mustang win over the Blackhawks.

Every time West Perry and Susquenita meet, the tension can be felt. Even more so is that the case when the two school’s young girls’ soccer programs take to the field for battle.

On May 5 on West Perry’s senior night, the Mustangs rebounded from two devastating losses to beat Susquenita 5-1. The Mustangs have lost six straight in the twice yearly county rivalry.

Much like the first time the Mustangs and Blackhawks met, West Perry used a powerful offensive attack to charge to the victory. The Mustangs outshot Susquenita 40-15 and used six more corners to cruise past the Blackhawks.

“Overall, I’m just glad we won again,” West Perry coach Steve Hile explained. “We’re still recovering from the loss of (injured central mid) Alyse (Hile) so tonight we tried refining some positions and we tested a lot of different stuff out.”

West Perry struck early when Shyanne Ward passed the ball to Felicia Cramer who beat the Blackhawk keeper, Kristin Baer for the first goal of the night just over three minutes into the game. Then, in the 18th minute, senior Tiffany Bowersox gave the Mustangs a 2-0 lead after she finished a pass from Lynne Lehman.

Susuqenita’s first good look came a few moments later when star sophomore Alex Schardt beat the Mustangs defense but her low shot missed to the left of the net.

Schardt responded when she drilled a free-kick from 28 yards out over West Perry keeper Jamie Snavely’s head to keep the Blackhawks within striking distance, down 2-1 at the break.

“Alex is a great athlete,” Blackhawk head coach Chris Haring explained. “Plus, she’s only a sophomore. Each game she just keeps getting better.”

West Perry grabbed a 3-1 lead when newly inserted right mid, sophomore Tessa Reisinger, passed a through ball to Bowersox who took a few dribbles before drilling the goal over the leaping Baer for her 6th goal of the season.

“I’m very proud of Tiffany, to get two goals on her senior night is awesome,” Hile said.

The Mustangs had a chance to extend the lead, but Ward’s deep shot was saved by Baer, one of her 16 saves on the night.

“Our regular keeper quit the team, and Kristin was a spur of the moment volunteer that had never played goalie before. Considering all of that, I thought she did an awesome job,” Haring added.

In the 66th minute, Cramer drove down the left sideline, then cross the ball to the middle where Lehman made an incredible diving header for the goal.

“That goal was a perfect example of the changes we made,” Hile explained. “We moved Lynne from the outside to the inside to get that aggressiveness and hunger to attack the net and it paid off.”

Schardt again had a chance to score late in the contest, but her low line drive was shot directly at Snavely, who made the save.

“This was probably our best played game of the year, even though we lost,” Haring said. “We were doing pretty well then we had some injuries and when we lost our keeper that took some heart out of the girls, but we’re getting back to playing better.”

West Perry’s final goal of the contest came with just six minutes remaining when Cramer drilled a penalty kick right down the middle to seal the final score at 5-1.

Mustang notesThe night after the Susquenita game, West Perry dropped a tough 10-0 game to unbeaten and probable number one seed in districts, Trinity and fell to 8-7 overall and 7-5 in the Capital division. The Mustangs, playing without Hile, Lehman and Cramer (who suffered an injury 10 minutes into the match) relied heavily on their defense to keep the score low. Sophomore sweeper Jess Strohecker led that defense making several body saves and deep clearances. Snavely made six saves in the loss.

With just three games remaining, Cramer eclipsed the 30 point mark. Her 13 goals leads all Mustangs and her four assists sit third. Hile (six goals, five assists) and Ward (five goals, seven assists) are tied for second in points with Bowersox (six goals, two assists) as the only other Mustang with double-digit points.

West Perry was slated to finish its regular season with trips to Waynesboro and James Buchanan and also finish the delayed game versus Greencastle-Antrim before waiting for news from the District 3-AA playoff committee.

Blackhawk notesSchardt’s goal gave her nine for the season, 60 percent of the Blackhawks’ scoring.

Susquenita also dropped a 9-0 contest at Middletown where Baer made 10 saves.

The Blackhawks look to get win number two as they closed the season with a home game May 10 night against Milton Hershey.